Library At Broward General Dedicated To Slain Physician

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Friends, family and colleagues of Dr. Francisco Garcia, who was murdered outside a Davie church in November, gathered on Friday to dedicate a hospital library in his honor.

``I invite you to share in the knowledge and joy that he lives in all of us,`` said Dr. Diran Seropian, chief of staff at Broward General Medical Center. ``He was a special physician who brought a special caring.``

In two days, the suspect charged in Garcia`s slaying will stand trial.

John Worthy, the Davie teen-ager accused of bludgeoning Garcia to death, is scheduled to appear before Judge John Ferris in Broward Circuit Court.

The five-minute ceremony on Friday in the hospital`s medical library was brief but emotional.

Tears came to Ida Garcia as she hugged and thanked the 50 people who paid tribute to her husband. The respected 53-year-old internist was killed on Nov. 16 during a robbery while returning an emergency telephone call outside St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Davie.

``Dr. Francisco Garcia was somebody special who we loved very much,`` Dr. Jack Leiser said. ``He loved this hospital very much. He was well loved by patients and friends.``

Broward General`s medical staff decided to dedicate its library to Garcia. His wife commissioned the sculpting of a bronze bust for the library.

``He was more dedicated than anyone I`ve ever known,`` said Frank Garcia, 23, one of the doctor`s four children. ``He really lived for two things -- his family and his practice.``

The doctor twice turned down being chief of medicine at the hospital, where he practiced for 17 years, his son said. ``It wasn`t his style. He just wanted to practice medicine.``

``He loved this hospital very much,`` Ida Garcia said. ``This was his second home.``

Seropian said he often saw Garcia at the hospital early in the morning.

``He was always here anxious to see his patients, and to do what he perceived as a burden he embraced with love,`` Seropian said. ``The real Francisco Garcia lives with the God he loved and in all of us. This bust of him will be a remembrance. . . .``

Hallandale artist Enzo Gallo, a family friend, said it took him about two months to create the bust of Garcia. Once sculpted, the bust was sent to Italy to be cast in bronze, he said.